Sinai on high alert after rocket attack on Israel, Jordan

Monday, August 09, 2010 |
Israel Today Staff

Egypt on Thursday deployed hundreds of extra troops to the border between the Sinai Peninsula and southern Israel, just days after terrorists used the Egyptian territory to fire at least five Grad missiles at the nearby Israeli and Jordanian resort towns of Eilat and Aqaba.

One Jordanian man was killed and three others were wounded when one of the missiles landed in front of an Aqaba hotel.

"Security forces will search the area and conduct investigations into the possible hiding place of Palestinians," and Egyptian official told the Egyptian Gazette, indicating that Cairo agrees with Israel's assessment that Palestinian terror groups were behind the attack.

"Egypt will never, under any circumstances, tolerate the use of its lands by any party to harm the country's interests," another Egyptian government source told the Middle East News Agency (MENA). "Security efforts are being intensified to unravel the circumstances behind the firing of the five rockets."

Meanwhile, Hamas, the Palestinian group most likely responsible for the missile attack, tried to blame the incident on Israel.

A senior Hamas official in Gaza told reporters that Israel was the only one with anything to gain from the attack since it provided "a justification for the (Israeli) occupation [sic] to condemn Egypt and strike the Gaza Strip." Israel has neither condemned Egypt nor retaliated against Gaza in the aftermath of the attack.

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